The $5 billion cost of ecclesiastical corruption

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jan 16, 2025

Five billion dollars. $5,000,000.000.00

Catholic dioceses and religious orders in the United States have spent a bit more than that in the past 20 years to settle the financial costs of the sex-abuse scandal. That figure does not include the settlements paid out before the scandal emerged in the headlines: settlements that routinely involved non-disclosure agreements.

With those five billion dollars, the American Church might have paid all the costs of training 20,000 men for the priesthood, or completely funded 10,000 parishes for a year, or established several new first-rate universities or hospitals, or provided pre-natal care for more than a million mothers.

And of course the monetary costs of the scandal—while easier to calculate—pale in comparison with the human costs: the suffering endured by victims of abuse, the disillusionment of millions of people, the collapse of Catholic influence in the public sphere, the loss of credibility in the hierarchy.

That’s the bill that has come due, after decades in which Church leaders put public appearances and clerical solidarity above the interests of the Catholic faith and the Catholic faithful.

The sex-abuse scandal was not—is not—a crisis imposed on the Catholic Church, brought on by external forces. It is a self-inflicted wound, caused by bishops and pastors who had been trained to give top priority to the temporal needs of the Church rather than the supernatural.

In any other walk of life, such a catastrophe would have led to a thorough-going reform. Not merely the imposition of new programs and procedures, rules and regulations (largely borne by the laity), but a complete change of attitude, a totally new approach to leadership, a period of purgation. That hasn’t yet happened.

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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  • Posted by: JFRKPI - Jan. 22, 2025 4:57 PM ET USA

    Great concise article Mr. Lawler, thank you very much!

  • Posted by: grateful1 - Jan. 18, 2025 11:14 AM ET USA

    And the moral rot continues, with Francis's infliction of McCarrick crony McElroy on the Diocese of Washington, D.C.

  • Posted by: RoseMore - Jan. 17, 2025 8:06 PM ET USA

    Is there any way the laity can bring about a change ?

  • Posted by: Sciamej1913 - Jan. 17, 2025 6:47 PM ET USA

    It really bothers me to know that our Church and its leaders have brought about a situation where the PEOPLE OF GOD have had to support all of this damage to human lives, bot the abused and those who have had to contribute through their parishes and diocesan holdings such sums of monies. To think about it angers many a person in our Church. Parishes raising monies for good causes such as described as well as parish centers and programs that will have helped the people, all delayed & stopped.

  • Posted by: feedback - Jan. 17, 2025 8:19 AM ET USA

    US Bishops still need to address and explain the magical promotion of Uncle Ted in their ranks; how did he become the architect of the 2002 Dallas Charter? Another form of harm done to the Church, as fallout of the sex scandals, is the phenomenon of "Cancelled Priests." Many Bishops use their enhanced powers with "zero-tolerance" and being "tough on crimes" only to remove from ministry and persecute faithful priests. The prime example of which is the case of Father Pavone. The devil rejoices.

  • Posted by: ewaughok - Jan. 17, 2025 12:04 AM ET USA

    Thank you, Mr. Lawler for not letting this be swept under the rug by happy-clappy bishops, Cardinals, and even higher ecclesiastical figures! So many clerics at every level want us to “move on, already!” But as long as there has been no “complete change of attitude, a totally new approach to leadership,” let alone “a period of purgation,” it would be morally wrong to pretend we are beyond the horrific sex-abuse scandal.